In this episode of The Ryan Holtz Show, I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming a special guest, Mr Heroic himself, Jason Mayden! Jason and I chat about Michael Jordan, ending poverty, providing hope, Chicago and how to not only live half of your god given self, but live the full self. This conversation impacted me, immensely. Please leave your comments below and let me know what you think!

In his previous role at Nike, Jason oversaw the design and execution of all conceptual products, data driven innovations and inline lifestyle and performance products for athletes and cultural icons such as Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Derek Jeter, and Michael Jordan.

In 2011, Mayden successfully received his Master’s in General Management and Social Innovation from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and shortly there after he returned to Nike as the Global Director of Innovation for Nike Digital Sport where he was responsible for the strategic investigation of new technologies and services such as the Nike Fuel Band. (Full Bio Available Upon Request, BUT I am sure you get the point.

I wanted to have Jason on the podcast after I watched one of his interviews he did on Impact Theory. Jason spoke poetically, acted articulate and then wrapped his street style with a dash of poise. I was hooked! Educated, motivated, and highly successful but still humble as pie. This is an interview that I worked hard to get for you as the nuggets of life, business and being heroic are sure to have massive impact on both your perspective, soul and mind. I have put together a few of the pull quotes and talking points below, but all the goodies are in the podcast, so make sure you have a listen!

Reach out to Jason and his team at Super Heroic here. You can also hit Jason up on Instagram here.

PULL QUOTES & SHOW NOTES

1. Growth Mindset Language Vs Fixed Mindset Language
2. Look at what is happening in Chicago through the eyes of prescriptive savagery.
3. You don’t choose to be in a bad neighbourhood. Poverty is created.
4. My origin story is so powerful that a tragic event became so transformational because it taught me the importance of not only my life, but other people’s lives.
5. “Being in the boardroom, wearing sneakers and a ball cap and being able to articulate with the smartest minds in the room.”
6. “Unfortunately we have associated accomplishment with appearance and education.”
7. If a person does not want to do business with me because I speak my truth, that is a person l should probably not be in contact with.
8. “When you play the role of half of who you are, you rob the world of this God-given gift that you can display because you care more about what another person thinks of you than you think of yourself. I don’t expect love or to have anyone validate my existence because I have my wife, my kids and the god I pray to that tells me my life is just as important as anyone else’s.”
9. “I don’t feel sorry for myself if something did not happen because I did not make it happen. I don’t set any limit on myself.”
10. “If you fight the fight itself, you start to exert too much energy meaning that the weight of the fight becomes to much.”
11. What I do with the flow of the way I dress, is go with the stereotype. They assume that I don’t know much, they assume that I don’t have anything to contribute, and therefore by assuming, they automatically give me the upper hand in the conversation because I know everything about what their thinking and they know nothing about what I am thinking. They now have already started to give up on trying to figure me out. This is social camouflage, I can hide in plain sight. Because I dress this way, they expect the least of me. This tells me more about them before they even know my resume.
12. We try to fight and combat stereotypes don’t! Let people expect less from you. Let people expect that your not gonna do something because you know why, when you do it and you do it well, you have figured out a way to be your full self on purpose in front of people that can encourage others. Think less of me because now I can maneuver without any friction because you are not worried about me. The moment I start to dress and model their behaviour, then they have to start worrying about me. Because they see me as a competitor.
13. What’s better, the competitor you don’t know you have or the competitor you know you have. They not gonna put up much of a fight if they do not see me as competition.
14. Positive psychology
15. I am very particular about words because words are things we carry in our soul.
16. I am born to be an intellectual sprinter
17. We stopped praising the application of knowledge and only praise the acquisition of knowledge.
18. We accept failure as a choice
19. We are at an advantage by going through tough circumstances because we can see what we need to get around.
20. Travel with your mind because that is the part you should never be impoverished because of.
21. People have a great way of placing their insecurities on you because they couldn’t do it themselves, that’s the ego. “That’s where your limit is but maybe that’s where I begin.”
22. To have self-doubt is to worry about what people think about you. To have doubt is trying to perform for an audience that is not probably the audience you do not want to be impressing.
23. Why should I worry about the opinions of people, that is just as temporary as I am? That makes no sense.
24. How do I explain being misunderstood? It’s called vision because people can see you.
25. It takes a very strategic amount of energy to have an ego and you have to keep that up.
26. The most exhausting part of creating a top-selling shoe is managing the process of weeding out what opinions matter.
27. “I wish I could be the quarterback and the receiver of my blessings. I am just the receiver, I just run my route.”

Perspective, perspective and PERSPECTIVE! In my humble opinion, travel has opened my eyes to thoughts, feelings and perceptions that I would never be exposed to! I think that in many ways, ideas come from “out of the box” thinking. I recently traveled to Boca Chica which is right outside of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

This trip was awesome but a third world country has no middle class, meaning you have money or you do not! The work ethic of the locals in this country is amazing! I cannot help but feel blessed and humbled ito have the opportunity that I have here in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. We wake up each day with all the resources a human could ever dream of.

Running water from the tap, heat, air conditioning, food, produce are just a few of the basics that we have and do not pay any mind to. Walking around, smelling the air and talking to the dominicans in my “spanglish” in an effort to acknowledge their native language which is Spanish makes my mind think, heart pound and eyes stretch to see as much as I possibly can….to ensure that I never forget my experience but most of all show humanity to people who simply do not have what we have.

Business, marketing, what the heck does this have to do with being a better business and marketing person? One word that comes to mind is HUMILITY. The humility to always move forward, learn, poke and search. Human psychology is business and life.

Here are a few reasons why I think you should travel:

1. Touch, feel and see how others do business
2. Experience how technology or “lack of” impacts efficiency when it comes to business especially tourism and hotel sectors
3. Get out of the “Fish Bowl Syndrome” – I talk about this in my presentations ALOT! If you think your local city is the end all, be all, think again! Remember this world is multi dimensional with meany ways of thinking
4. Gain new ideas! Observe, close your mouth and just listen and take it all in

From this trip alone, I have two new ideas that I will implement into my daily life immediately!

I want to give a special shout out to Be Live Hamaca Resort in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic for showing us a fantastic stay! This hotel was great! If you go, eat at the “Gourmet” restaurant and get the salmon and beef tenderloin! Yum!

Also, Barb from Westjet is absolutely awesome, as I am writing this blog, she is telling me about some of her past travel stories with the airline. I told her that she should write a blog as people would love to hear these kinds of stories!

Oops! One more thing! One of the historical sites that we seen was the gravesite of Christopher Columbus, some say he is buried in Spain, but none the less, very cool and a great experience!

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Testimonials

I wanted to take a moment to recommend the great work Ryan Holtz has done on an innovative initiative called Grove Tweet Up!! This out of the box idea was developed by Ryan to bring people together to
collaborate on supporting local buisness. This was developed to interact on Twitter and start the conversation about the benefit and use pf powerful social media tools to drive and stimulate local business. Spruce Grove is an economic power centre of excellence for business retention and business …

Stuart Houston Mayor City of Spruce Grove

I recently had the pleasure of participating in Ryan’s workshop during our annual, National education committee meeting. Ryan’s high energy and enthusiastic presentation instantly intrigued our group; I would confidently recommend him to anyone seeking an innovative and exciting seminar! Ryan is forward thinking and offers progressive marketing solutions, we are very excited to be working with him throughout 2017!

The MDA has partnered with Ryan Holtz to provide Social Media Networking workshops to our dealer members. We have received positive feedback from our members and would highly recommend Ryan for his informative and common sense approach to social media.

Ryan is energetic about his work, extremely friendly and can be counted on to ensure expert execution in all aspects of his work.

Carol McBee

I’ve known Ryan for a few years now. He’s the real deal. His intoxicating energy and enthusiasm is very refreshing. He’s a real go getter and provides excellent service. He’s an asset for any organization

Valerie Stephens, Managing Partner, Aqua Insurance Brokers Ltd

I’ve learned more about social media in 5 minutes with Ryan than I have in the last few years listening to other so called experts.

Frank PaonessaGeneral Sales ManagerMayfield Toyota

Here is a man who never ceases to amaze me. The heart and enthusiasm he puts into everything he does is well over the top and I think that is why he shines. The more I interact with him the more highly I recommend him as a social media expert, a marketing genius and a connector of people. He has the right personality to click with just about anyone and is not afraid to put himself out there for anybody.
If you can work with him I say do so, you will be a better person or business for it.

Don NaultSales ManagerPremier Garage Condos

Ryan taught a seminar on social media marketing at a Spruce Grove Chamber of Commerce luncheon, a group of about 60 business people, city councilors, and trustees. His talk was concise and informative, and he engaged well with his audience, using visual media extremely effectively.”

Roslyn Bergen, Co-Owner, The Sweet Side

Ryan was a great help to my project! I would not hesitate to recommend him. Please contact me if you require any information

Bernie LeBlanc

Ryan is vibrant, passionate and imaginative. He has volunteered his time to local organizations in order to share his knowledge and expertise. He has embraced his business community and continues to reach out to customers and business colleagues alike to engage them. I’m really glad to have had the opportunity to meet and work with him, and look forward to more exciting ventures in the future!